<a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/14/game-preview-edmonton-oilers-florida-panthers-start-best-of-three-rogers-place-6pm-cbc/">Game 5</a> of the Stanley Cup Finals in your home barn on a Saturday night, only 48 hours after <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/13/how-are-you-handling-the-stanley-cup-final-edmonton-oilers-florida-panthers/">mounting a once-in-a-century comeback</a> against the team that stole Lord Stanley&#8217;s Mug from underneath you last spring.
Surely this is a game that you&#8217;d expect a team to get up for, right?
If you were hoping to see an inspiring performance from the Edmonton Oilers, you were unfortunately left disappointed.

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<a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/14/edmonton-oilers-on-verge-of-elimination-loss-at-home-game-5-florida-panthers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Their performance </a><a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/14/edmonton-oilers-on-verge-of-elimination-loss-at-home-game-5-florida-panthers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Saturday night</a> was nothing short of unacceptable, as they were unable to do anything but watch as the Florida Panthers put them on the brink of elimination. And while the Oilers had a good start to the game, for the first two minutes or so, they seemed to forget one important thing — Games, at least ones that don&#8217;t go to overtime, are 60 minutes long.
Those remaining 58 minutes were, to put it kindly, lifeless. No juice. No jump. No jubilation.
You can only tip your hat to the opposition so many times before you need to look in the mirror, and that&#8217;s what the Oilers will need to do if they hope to do anything but fall in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year. But they know that.
It&#8217;s one thing to know it, but it&#8217;s another thing to show it.
Connor McDavid and Corey Perry were the only Oilers who were able to get on the board. The former finally broke through and found the back of the net for the first time in this series; the latter was able to make the score somewhat close in the third, though it was all for naught. Those are the two bright spots from an otherwise forgettable night.
Mattias Ekholm, who has been the Oilers&#8217; best all-around defenceman since he arrived in February 2023, had arguably the worst game in the Blue and Orange, making costly mistakes that the Panthers were able to capitalize on. Look no further than Brad Marchand&#8217;s game-opening goal.
It was one in which the Oilers won the faceoff, but with Ekholm playing on the right side of the blue line, he instinctively took his first step to the right, only to part the Red Sea for Marchand to streak down. A save would&#8217;ve been nice, but the truth is that <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/14/calvin-pickard-starts-edmonton-oilers-game-5-florida-panthers-evander-kane/">Calvin Pickard</a> was hung out to dry.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Brad Marchand opens the scoring. 
🎥: Sportsnet | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LetsGoOilers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LetsGoOilers</a> <a href="https://t.co/sXRG47Bre0">pic.twitter.com/sXRG47Bre0</a>
&mdash; Oilersnation.com, Oily Since ‘07 (@OilersNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/OilersNation/status/1934048061971640583?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That was the tempo setter for this game. Florida was able to roll from there, and the Oilers — Well&#8230; they rolled over.
By the end of 60, they stared down the barrel of a three-goal loss in which they generated only three high-danger scoring chances. That&#8217;s tied for their lowest with their Game 3 loss to the Panthers and a far cry from the 11.5 they&#8217;ve averaged per game in these playoffs.
It&#8217;s not like the Oilers could&#8217;ve looked to their power play as a source of offence, either. Florida&#8217;s penalty kill looked like a dog on a bone, anticipating every foreshadowed move the Oilers tried for, whether it was feeding Leon Draisaitl in his office or setting up an <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/11/edmonton-oilers-evan-bouchard-norris-trophy-voting-cale-makar/">Evan Bouchard</a> bomb from the point. They got into the lanes any way they could and killed each of the three power play chances Edmonton got.
So now what?
The Oilers backed themselves into an uncomfortable corner when it comes to their goaltending. After Oilers head coach <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/13/kris-knoblauch-hating-early-penalties-edmonton-oilers-sit-evander-kane/">Kris Knoblauch</a> pulled Stuart Skinner in each of Games 3 and 4, it almost felt as if there was no other choice but to go with Pickard in the crease. With so many of the moves Knoblauch made turning to metaphorical gold, this one, with hindsight being 20/20, looks like a swing and a miss.
While it&#8217;s not as though Pickard blew the game, once again being hungover to dry throughout the game, he didn&#8217;t necessarily give the Oilers the life he had in previous games, especially Game 4. He couldn&#8217;t find the big save, and though this was undoubtedly the lowest volume game of the series, the point still stands.
It&#8217;s almost as if there&#8217;s no choice but to go back to Skinner — Someone who has the higher ceiling. It&#8217;s a time of year when the best players, with the highest ceilings, are on the ice, and that&#8217;s what Skinner is for this team.
Now, it&#8217;s <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-no-room-for-error-stanley-cup-final">do or die time</a> in Florida.
<hr />
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at <a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
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<h2>ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365</h2>
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<a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/14/game-preview-edmonton-oilers-florida-panthers-start-best-of-three-rogers-place-6pm-cbc/">Game 5</a> of the Stanley Cup Finals in your home barn on a Saturday night, only 48 hours after <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/13/how-are-you-handling-the-stanley-cup-final-edmonton-oilers-florida-panthers/">mounting a once-in-a-century comeback</a> against the team that stole Lord Stanley's Mug from underneath you last spring.

Surely this is a game that you'd expect a team to get up for, right?

If you were hoping to see an inspiring performance from the Edmonton Oilers, you were unfortunately left disappointed.


<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2107" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="325"></div>
<a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/14/edmonton-oilers-on-verge-of-elimination-loss-at-home-game-5-florida-panthers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Their performance </a><a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/14/edmonton-oilers-on-verge-of-elimination-loss-at-home-game-5-florida-panthers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Saturday night</a> was nothing short of unacceptable, as they were unable to do anything but watch as the Florida Panthers put them on the brink of elimination. And while the Oilers had a good start to the game, for the first two minutes or so, they seemed to forget one important thing — Games, at least ones that don't go to overtime, are 60 minutes long.

Those remaining 58 minutes were, to put it kindly, lifeless. No juice. No jump. No jubilation.

You can only tip your hat to the opposition so many times before you need to look in the mirror, and that's what the Oilers will need to do if they hope to do anything but fall in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year. But they know that.

It's one thing to know it, but it's another thing to show it.

Connor McDavid and Corey Perry were the only Oilers who were able to get on the board. The former finally broke through and found the back of the net for the first time in this series; the latter was able to make the score somewhat close in the third, though it was all for naught. Those are the two bright spots from an otherwise forgettable night.

Mattias Ekholm, who has been the Oilers' best all-around defenceman since he arrived in February 2023, had arguably the worst game in the Blue and Orange, making costly mistakes that the Panthers were able to capitalize on. Look no further than Brad Marchand's game-opening goal.

It was one in which the Oilers won the faceoff, but with Ekholm playing on the right side of the blue line, he instinctively took his first step to the right, only to part the Red Sea for Marchand to streak down. A save would've been nice, but the truth is that <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/14/calvin-pickard-starts-edmonton-oilers-game-5-florida-panthers-evander-kane/">Calvin Pickard</a> was hung out to dry.

https://twitter.com/OilersNation/status/1934048061971640583

That was the tempo setter for this game. Florida was able to roll from there, and the Oilers — Well... they rolled over.

By the end of 60, they stared down the barrel of a three-goal loss in which they generated only three high-danger scoring chances. That's tied for their lowest with their Game 3 loss to the Panthers and a far cry from the 11.5 they've averaged per game in these playoffs.

It's not like the Oilers could've looked to their power play as a source of offence, either. Florida's penalty kill looked like a dog on a bone, anticipating every foreshadowed move the Oilers tried for, whether it was feeding Leon Draisaitl in his office or setting up an <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/11/edmonton-oilers-evan-bouchard-norris-trophy-voting-cale-makar/">Evan Bouchard</a> bomb from the point. They got into the lanes any way they could and killed each of the three power play chances Edmonton got.

So now what?

The Oilers backed themselves into an uncomfortable corner when it comes to their goaltending. After Oilers head coach <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/06/13/kris-knoblauch-hating-early-penalties-edmonton-oilers-sit-evander-kane/">Kris Knoblauch</a> pulled Stuart Skinner in each of Games 3 and 4, it almost felt as if there was no other choice but to go with Pickard in the crease. With so many of the moves Knoblauch made turning to metaphorical gold, this one, with hindsight being 20/20, looks like a swing and a miss.

While it's not as though Pickard blew the game, once again being hungover to dry throughout the game, he didn't necessarily give the Oilers the life he had in previous games, especially Game 4. He couldn't find the big save, and though this was undoubtedly the lowest volume game of the series, the point still stands.

It's almost as if there's no choice but to go back to Skinner — Someone who has the higher ceiling. It's a time of year when the best players, with the highest ceilings, are on the ice, and that's what Skinner is for this team.

Now, it's <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-no-room-for-error-stanley-cup-final">do or die time</a> in Florida.

<hr />

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at <a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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